Electronic fund transfer over mobile phones is growing popular. Many systems include combining a point of sale (POS) device with a wireless communication device such as a cell phone.
These POS devices include a processor as well as an input device to receive and process information from a transaction card such as a debit card, a credit card, a cash card, a stored value card, an ATM card or combinations thereof and the like. The input device may include a bar code reader, a magnetic stripe reader, an integrated circuit reader, a smartcard reader, a fingerprint scanner, an optical scanner, a signature pad, an alphanumeric keypad (including a PIN pad), a proximity detector, an audio recording device, a camera or combinations thereof and the like. The processor of the POS device receives information from the transaction card and sends it to a remote computer via a communication network. This information can be transmitted by the processor via the wireless communication device. The wireless communication device includes a transceiver, a communication port or any other type of similar communication device capable of transmitting information received by the portable transaction device processor from the transaction card to the remote computer. The communication link between the remote computer and the wireless communication device can be provided by the processor of the wireless communication device. The portable transaction device can also include a Global Positioning System (GPS) locator chipset so the location of the POS can be tracked by the remote computer. The remote computer sends the information it has received to the processor of the institution that has issued the transaction card that is being used. The processor of this institution validates the requested transaction and sends this information to the processor of the portable transaction device via the remote computer and the wireless communication device which are linked to each other by way of the aforementioned communication network.
Known systems which combine POS devices with wireless communication devices present certain drawbacks such as the inconvenient length of time to receive information regarding whether or not a given transaction has been accepted or refused. Other systems currently available include PayPal mobile, Obopay, Swipepay mobile. These solutions use either SMS or FPRS as the means of communication. However, these communication methods often suffer from an unbounded delay or become unavailable in locations where these services are not provided. Another drawback of existing systems is that they require registration and installation of software which are usually inconvenient for users to install. More importantly, these systems do not work for all mobile phones given the many different combinations of hardware and software platforms. Moreover, these solutions are not secure. They are prone to spyware or keylogger. Hence they are not compliant with payment card industry standards such as PC1 PED.